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"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to